A test for religious moderates

Published 9:06 pm, Thursday, September 13, 2012

I have a message for those people who claim that the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the three other American diplomats in Libya was done in the name of Islam.

You are wrong.

As an imam who has spent a lifetime studying the Quran and Islamic law, I know that the religion prohibits taking innocent life.

The Quran states: "No soul shall be held responsible for the crime of another." The Quran equates killing an innocent with killing all of humankind.

We are a religion of law, not lawlessness.

These Libyans who attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and killed the American diplomats committed a heinous sin under Islamic law, and I condemn it.

What is doubly tragic is that Ambassador Stevens helped the Libyan people free themselves from the yoke of Moammar Khadafi and that the United States intervened militarily to save Benghazi from the wrath of Khadafi's troops.

In Cairo on the same day, the scene was enough to make any American's blood boil. Young Egyptians scaled the walls of the American embassy, hauled down the American flag and ripped it to pieces. In its place they waved a black flag with white letters reading in Arabic, "There is no God but Allah and Mohammad is his messenger."

It evoked images of the take over of the American embassy in Iran in 1979 that has led to more than three decades of cold war between Iran and the United States.

What provoked the protest in Cairo is a video — what the protesters are calling a U.S.-produced video — that defames the Prophet Mohammad.

For a religion that prohibits any image of Mohammad, this video was not just sacrilegious. It portrayed Mohammad as hypocritical, lustful and violent.

Of course, the video was not produced by the U.S. government.

No American official would have anything to do with something so vile and degrading to a religion.

News reports initially identified the filmmaker as a California man named Sam Bacile. But authorities later identified Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a Coptic Christian living in Southern California, as the driving force behind the film and said that he had used the fake name Sam Bacile. Coptic Christians in Egypt feel they are under attack by the country's Muslim majority.

Did the filmmaker really think this video would help Egypt's Coptic Christians?

A Cairo television host named Sheikh Khaled Abdullah, aired clips of the video translated into Arabic on an Islamic-focused television station on Saturday and posted them online.

Did Abdullah really think he was helping Egypt in its transition to a democratic government?

The answer is no.

These people just want to stir up trouble. They are part of the radical fringe that pushes constant turmoil rather than seeking solutions to begin to heal decades of strife.

Extremists of all religions excite the worst, most extreme reactions from others. It takes only one extremist action to set off a chain reaction that goes around the world.

In the Quran, God tells us not to insult the beliefs of others, lest they take revenge by insulting God. Humility in our understanding of God's purposes requires Muslims to respect other religions.

By taking the bait offered by extremist Islamophobes, we Muslims embarrass ourselves and reinforce stereotypes held by those who hate us — all while violating God's law.

The real conflict is not Christian vs. Muslim or Muslim vs. Jew. It's a struggle between extremists and moderates of all religions.

That's why the moderates amongst us in all faith traditions must work together to combat extremists.

I would ask Muslims to recognize that the best way to oppose hate speech is to ignore it. Reaction is precisely what a hater wants to provoke.

We can show the falsity of their messages simply by turning our backs.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is author of "Moving the Mountain" and chairman of Cordoba Initiative, an independent, multifaith and multinational project. He will speak on "Advancing Peaceful Coexistence between Christians, Jews and Muslims" at Skidmore College on Sept. 22.